Saw some weird people today. At the train stop by the mall, there was a group of 10 black guys dressed like the KKK, hoods and all, minus the face covers. They’d set up a small amplifier and a microphone, and one guy was hopping around screaming at the top of his lungs about how all white people are evil because “you evil white people’s ancestors” may or may not have owned slaves that may or may not have been related to the white-robed men stomping around frantically dispersing pamphlets.

Wow… that’s news to me. I was horrified at this remote possibility, especially given the unshakable credibility this man, who continued shrieking at passers-by. I wasn’t sure how to apologize to these poor men for these theoretical past events that were beyond my control, and they suggested helpfully that everyone present “reach into your pockets and give us ‘reparations’ for the crimes of your ancestors.”

I love the people here. It’s a constant circus. :)

There was also someone in the train today commenting enthusiastically on how “tight” the tires on another rider’s bike were. He went on to say “Man, that shit is tight! If I saw that on the street, I’d STEAL that shit!” Pretty interesting compliment.

It looks as if I’m going to move on to being an Account Manager at my company, which means I’ll be helping bring in new business, drafting deal proposals and serving as a point of contact for companies I help sign. That’ll be a fulltime position in which I’ll be getting commissions (woo!) and hopefully a pay raise. That’s pretty kick-ass, and I’m happy about it. I’ll know more this Tuesday when my review comes.

That’s all for now.

Time for an update.

I bought a Playstation 2 this week. I’d always avoided buying one because of how much I hate the controller, but seeing the mindblowing shit at E3 convinced me that it was time. I bought Final Fantasy X-2 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and I gotta say, I’m not minding the controller as much as I used to and I’m loving these games.

I’m amazed at the production values in Final Fantasy X-2. Square has some amazing stuff going on there because this is one of the best all-around games I’ve ever played. It’s been hard not to spend all day and night playing it.

Prince of Persia is proving to be awesome as well. One thing a lot of games lack that I love in this game is that they made going from point A to point B really fun. Even if you’re not fighting anyone, it’s still fun to jump, wallrun, flip and somersault around, just because it looks cool and is quick and responsive. Really fun game so far.

I started reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead again. Third time for me. Been a while since I read it last time, and I didn’t expect to be doing so again so soon. Unfortunately, I’ve been sick this week, and that’s been exacerbated by the fact that I’ve been reading so many business books, I dream sales and marketing. One night I was dreaming intensely about hammering out a cross-promotion of some kind with a cereal company, and the details had me so occupied while I slept that none of it was restful, and I had a pretty horrible day for being sick and having no sleep.

As a result of that, I’ve sworn off of nonfiction for a week. It’s hard! :(

I am really enjoying the break, though, even though I encounter situations every day where I see one of the 30 books I have sitting on my desk to read, and I have a sudden flash of inspiration to read it. That’s difficult to resist since I’m so inspiration-driven, and I have SO many books I want to finish. Such is the price of sleep, though.

That’s all for now.

Got back from E3. Holy SHIT, was that a fucking show or what!

Got to meet hundreds of awesome people and see some terrific games. I don’t own a PS2 or an X-Box yet, but after seeing what’s coming out, this will change. I’m completely blown away at everything, at what an awesome experience it was.

I’m still winding down from the whole experience. Most of it was meetings but it was all a ton of fun.

Some highlights from the trip:

- While in a meeting, I was threatened with death by ninja assassins if I violate an NDA. I don’t have ninja insurance. :(

- The Saga of Ryzom booth babes in blue. One of them got crabby and in my face and poked me with a sword when I didn’t spend enough time with their game, and the other one stared at me until I blushed. :P

- Talking to a guy from Portland who grows medicinal weed for a living, and finding out that one of his clients is suing him for not giving him his weed on time, and that he’s in LA to be on Judge Judy.

- Him later arbitrarily flashing me his penis in the middle of LAX. I’m still not sure why.

- Getting sneaked in the back to the Unreal 3 engine demo booth, avoiding an hour’s wait in line. I got skipped in ahead of Sinbad! (yes, THAT Sinbad)

- Hanging out in the private Discreet lounge. I got to get drunk and rant for half an hour on all the reasons MAX fucking sucks to a MAX reseller, which was fun. ;D

- Dinner at Morton’s. BEST. FUCKING. STEAK. EVER. If you’re willing to drop a week’s pay on dinner, this is the place to do it. I had a tonguegasm after each bite. Multiple tonguegasms.

- Getting lost in LA at midnight and walking around for an hour, then having a crazy homeless black guy tell us about this great Gentlemen’s Club he knew about! It’s just around the corner there, over there in that dark alley (the one next to lot with the running car with tinted windows), up a set of stairs and in the back of an abandoned building. Sounds great! We unabashedly used him to lead us to a road we recognized, then tried to ditch his little thuggy ass, and a 10-minute argument on how helpful he was to us and how we fucking owe him ensued. He walked away with a quarter and four cigarettes. Crazy fuck.

Overall, sweet Jesus on a gold stick, what a SHOW! Can’t wait for next year. Hangover should be almost gone by then. ;D

Well, I’m going to E3 this year. That’s the Electronic Entertainment Expo for the uninitiated: www.e3expo.com

It’s a gigantic video game trade show orgy. I’ve wanted to go for six years and finally I get to! Hope I get a chance to actually explore the place! I may have gotten wrangled into representing the Development side of Liquid Development as my boss, who normally fills the role, is too tied up with projects inhouse to attend. It’s cool, though, another set of shoes to fill!

Been reading more and more. I’m currently reading Guerrilla Advertising (pretty good so far, but suffers from undefined overuse of the word ‘guerrilla’), The Brand You 50 (oddly pretentious, yet compelling), The Influence Edge (mostly CRAP, I hate workbooks disguised as books), and Relationship Marketing, which I haven’t delved into too deeply yet.

Just joined Orkut this past week. Seems really interesting, and a great way to expand my social reach. I can see myself using it for both business and pleasure. I find it a little annoying, though, that there are some groups I’d like to join but would look unprofessional if I did. [insert Cross-dressing dwarf necro-bestiality comment here]

Just wrapping up the portfolio project at work today. Printed up damn near 3,000 pieces of paper that had to get cut at Kinko’s, but they botched a third of the job. I was about to hand-cut all of them myself to get it done on time, but saw a need to work smarter instead of harder, and had Kinko’s do it all again for free. HUGE props to the manager at Kinko’s who did it all HIMSELF! Kinko’s kicks ass and just ensured my repeat business.

Got an interesting new opportunity at work this week. Can’t talk about it, but it will be a really amazing and unique experience that will help me build experience and make an enormous difference at work. Will talk about it when I can!

Saw Van Helsing yesterday. Yes, I know it was a really awful movie, but god damn it, I enjoyed it anyway! I love Stephen Sommers’ movies (the two Mummy movies and Deep Rising) and had a blast with this one too, despite it being the weakest of them all. I get funny looks saying I enjoyed it. :)

That’s all for now. I’m buzzing hard on caffeine and needed to update the blog.

Someday I should figure out how to track how many people read this.

Haven’t updated lately. Been busy. Took over duties as a marketing director for my company and still keeping up with sales and reading.

Finished lots of books lately. Wrapped up the 48 Laws of Power, Patton on Leadership, How to Be a Rainmaker, How to Be a Marketing Superstar, and What Were They Thinking? Basically just leadership, sales and marketing.

I’ve always had trouble remembering details of what I read shortly after I read it, so I decided that I’ll use Post-Its to use as bookmarks and to write notes on as I read a book, and then go back later and transcribe and edit down the bits of book that I liked and found immediately applicable. My knowledge retention has skyrocketed since I started doing this.

It’s terrific. I end up reading the books two or three times, and I get to 1) remember more, 2) have a short, personalized summary of the book so I don’t have to buy it (unless it’s ALL good, like Patton and 48 Laws), and 3) I can share it easily with my close friends.

There’s so damn much going on in my head since I started doing this that I’ve started having dreams about sales and marketing and what I’m going to do when I go back to work on Monday. I seem to have trouble finding time to absorb all the information I require these days.

Another note: If you’re in sales in any company, sign up on www.linkedin.com immediately. It’s basically Friendster for business except immensely useful. Network like crazy and start getting everyone you know on your connections list, and then start using it for sales. It’s incredible, even simply for getting a name for making phone calls. I can’t imagine operating without it.

It’s interesting finding out in so short a time how often I engaged in losing strategies like not socializing with people, closing myself off from the world and not being bold and proactive. Most people wouldn’t recognize me anymore. :)

That’s all for now, getting back to transcribing Patton on Leadership.